Monday, 11 March 2013

Invest in an established website instead..

Thinking about trying your hand at e-commerce and unsure where to start? Or maybe you've already dabbled in Internet Marketing and are brainstorming your next big project. Well, before you jump right into designing an entirely new website from from the ground up, hold on a second. There are plenty of established websites out there already for sale, and these markets can provide great opportunities for the discerning buyer.

1. It provides a shortcut

For one thing, buying an established website can save you a lot of time, energy, and even money – this can be especially handy if you're clueless about web deign and would rather have a turn-key solution than dig into all the nuts and bolts at once.

And even if you have a new idea you want to test out, you may find similar sites out there for sale, allowing you to test the market with minimal effort. As they say, “There's nothing new under the sun.”

2. Get your hands on an established income source

How about buying a website that has an established income stream? This type of site can be seen as an investment in cash flow, and it's not uncommon to pick something up for around 10X the monthly revenue; you'll certainly want to do your homework, but it's well worth looking into!

3. Find good opportunities to flip sites

Another great opportunity provided by established website sales is the site flipping model. If you can find a website that's making money but has room for improvement, you can potentially make a few quick changes that radically increase conversions and profits. The site is then far more valuable and can be sold at a significant gain.

In most cases, some real work is needed first, but it's certainly an attractive business model.

4. Link building and SEO

Link building is a slow and time consuming process for any new web business - but it is usually crucial to gaining more organic search traffic. Established websites will almost always have existing inbound links, a respectable SEO page rank which can give you a real kickstart that new websites just won't have.

Sunday, 20 January 2013

1. Clearly explain why you are selling your website

Potential buyers always want to know why you are selling your online business. Providing information like;
- I've lost interest in the website.
- I no longer have time to run the business.
- I don't have the knowledge to continue growing this business.
Can all help convince the potential buyer that they have the ability to increase traffic and profit from buying your online business.

2. List your website on Ackwired.com

You obviously need to be listed on marketplace websites to sell your business. Here are a few to look at

Ackwired (that's us)

We are an aggregator of many of the online the market places, and provide a curated experience to only list the highest quality websites for sale. It's also free to list your website for sale.www.ackwired.com

Flippa

One of the largest market places to buy and sell websites.
www.flippa.com

Afternic

One of the largest sites for buying and selling domains. Very well established.
www.afternic.com

3. Provide proof of traffic

Outline the traffic you are currently receiving;
- Monthly page views.
- Monthly unique users.
- Signups per month (optional but can be helpful).
Remember, without proof though (screen shots etc..) your statistics won't mean much to any potential buyer.

4. Detail revenue and profit and have proof

The primary reason most websites sell is their potential of revenue/profit to the new owner. Making this information easily accessible to them is crucial for them to make an informed decision about purchasing your website.

5. Outline running costs

Most people always miss this one out. By being upfront about the running costs allows your potential buyers to determine if they can first of all afford to purchase and run your website, but also if they can improve its revenue/profit.

6. Provide an attractive description of your business, but don't write a novel

Provide useful, and to the point information about your online business. You don't need to write paragraphs upon paragraphs. Simple dot points about your business can be sufficient.

7. Use an eye catching subject/title

Most of the time all you will have to attract the user is a row listing the title and image of your website. You have about 5-10 words to convince the user to click through and read more. Make this count!

8. Use screenshots of your website that really promote it

Premium quality screenshots seem to be an after thought when selling a website. There are most likely hundreds of pages to your website, including user/admin restricted areas. If a potential buyer needs to source credentials just to have a look at the functionality it may be too late. Provide good quality screen shots of the core components of your site - including brief annotations about each section can also help. However, remember they still need access to view and play around with these features - so have them prepared in advance. One of our better websites for sale.

9. Outline where you could see this business going in the next 1-3 years

Being able to give potential buyers ideas on where you would see the business in 1-3 years from now can give them the confidence that you had a real vision in mind when you started this business.

10. Be prompt about answering questions from potential buyers.

Finally, be prompt. If a potential buyer asks questions about your business get back to them as soon as possible - remember they are customers too.

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Ackwired - Just Launched!

We are very excited to announce ackwired.com recently launched (in November 2012). Ackwired was created as a platform to allow our customers to buy and sell only quality established websites.

2013 looks to be an exciting year for us with many new features already lined up in the roadmap. But we would still love to hear your feedback! Do you have a new feature you would like? or even spotted something that just doesn't look right? - get in touch with us at www.ackwired.com/contact

As well as being an aggregator of all great websites currently on the market - you can also list your established website for sale on www.ackwired.com/sell. All submissions are reviewed and only the most promising are published - this is one of our steps to ensure the highest quality on Ackwired.

Our goal - to provide you, and all of our customers with only the best websites that are currently on the market.